When it comes to Cuba,-as well as Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, the great capitalist press deploys its machinery so that everything that is disclosed and perceived by the public is what suits the imperialist interests. As stated by the Doctor Political Science and Sociology, and Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, LA Diez, “Journalists have hidden the positive indicators, and disseminated only, with magnification, the negative”. As sociologists often say if you torture the data enough they eventually confess what you want. ”

Despite the tightening of the U.S. blockade, the global economic crisis and the systematic distortion of the Cuban reality in capitalist media, Cuba advances in updating its economic and social model, and it’s prestige is increasing internationally..

Among the positive indicators that the imperial magnifying glass fails to see, I call the attention of 55 facts that show the strength of the Cuban Revolution on the eve of its anniversary.

1. The 2013 Human Development Report of the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP), which considers the index of life expectancy, access to education and standard of living, ranks Cuba 59th in 187 countries, with high human development.

2. Economic Plan 2014 ensures the necessary resources for the exports of goods and services, and preserves programs for investors designed to generate new and growing revenue.

3. Cuba is working based on projections for Social and Economic Development until 2030, with the purpose of creating the foundation for a prosperous and sustainable society.

An international benchmark of participatory democracy in the workplace

4. The National People’s Assembly approved the new Labour Code, which was Continue reading →

Cubans will celebrate the 55th anniversary of their Revolution on January 1 as they advance the social project they chose that same day in 1959 and while involved in a progressive update of their country’s socio-economic model.

Socialism will continue to develop in Cuba, in a prosperous and sustainable manner, as stipulated by the social and economic guidelines which direct the ongoing changes on the island.

A new historic stage in he Cuban revolutionary process

We are witnessing a new historic stage in the Cuban revolutionary process, which has been supported by the unity of this nation and by the resistance of its people to the hostility of successive US administrations.

Over 500,000 houses have been constructed since mid 2011 under the Venezuelan government’s mass housing construction program.

Constructing three million new homes by 2019

Launched by former President Hugo Chavez in order to tackle the South American country’s shortage of affordable housing, the program has the ambitious aim of constructing three million new homes by 2019.

The Great Housing Mission also seeks to provide housing for all those made homeless by the heavy rains of 2010. Further, low-income families receive heavy subsidies from the government to help them pay for their houses, and those living on less than the minimum wage receive their new homes for free.

Bolivians are celebrating the launch of the country’s first telecommunications satellite with indigenous rituals dedicated to Pachamama, or Mother Earth.

President Evo Morales was in China for the Friday blast-off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province. “I’m very happy, satisfied and moved by the successful launch” of satellite Tupac Katari, said Bolivian President Evo Morales, who travelled to China for the mission.

Whether it is a case of sabotage or simply poor management practices by the state-owned PETROTRIN, as the union claims, a mysterious oil spill in south Trinidad is wreaking havoc on homes and wildlife in the area.

PETROTRIN claims it has no idea as to the source of the spills, and Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine, who toured La Brea and other affected areas on Sunday, said “the mystery remains where this oil is coming from.”

The Environmental Management Authority also said it had been unable to ascertain the source and that its immediate concern was the protection of life and the environment.

Gary Aboud, president of Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, told IPS that the only solution was to shut down all oil production in the area.

“As we speak, more and more oil is being pumped into the sea. Why doesn’t the minister order the shutdown of all oil being transported in the Gulf of Paria? Shut it down, if you don’t know where it is coming from,” he said. “We find it totally unbelievable.”

Jamaican Richard Hart, a Marxist historian, trade unionist, lawyer and teacher, died in the UK on Saturday at the age of 96.

Richard Hart was involved in trade union activities in the British Caribbean region colonies for many years. A member of the Labour Committee formed in Jamaica in 1938 by Norman Manley to assist Alexander Bustamante in the formation of a trade union, he had the responsibility of drafting a model trade union constitution.

He was in 1939 the Secretary of the Trade Union Advisory Council, which subsequently became the Trade Union Council. He was the President of the Jamaica Government Railway Employees Union from 1942 until its merger with other unions in 1948, he was a Vice President of the Trade Union Congress of Jamaica from 1949 to 1953.